TWTW: Racing Big Wheels at the Beach
May has arrived. The leaves are finally turning green and racing in New York City is taking place in conditions that can be described as pleasant for the first time this calendar year. Sure, in just a few weeks we are going to be complaining about racing in 95 degree weather with 1000% humidity but for now we are going to race our faces off in this fair springtime weather. Which is exactly what we did this past week with TBD racers in action on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. It was one of those weeks that left us feeling truly #blessed by the amount of racing in NYC.
The Week That Was (TWTW) for To Be Determined
Speaking of May, its arrival also heralds the return of Tuesdays at Floyd a few weeks after Thursday racing kicked off at everyone's favorite abandoned airfield in Brooklyn. With leaders jerseys on the line and some of that beautiful spring weather there were massive fields on hand for the series opener though those numbers were not sufficient to keep Baris Aytan in check as he solo'd to the win. (FBF Tuesday Results)
There were a handful of other races throughout the week including FBF Part II on Thursday night, another Castelli Series race in Prospect Park and the Women's Woodstock Grand Prix (in you guessed it, Woodstock). But the biggest event of the week was definitely the Zach Koop Memorial Criterium on Sunday at Orchard Beach in the Bronx. With over 500 racers registered and a full day of racing on tap the forecast was looking bleak mid-week but then at the last minute the weather gods decided to cooperate and provide dry conditions for the eight annual race at Orchard Beach. We'll have a full race report later this week but in the meantime a huge thank you to all of the CRCA volunteers for pulling this race together, including in particular our own Ted Teyber who took a break from race director duties to snag a podium as part of a long breakaway. The combination of free pizza for racers, the free kids races and the Big Wheel races really makes for a memorable day at the beach.
What you missed from #zachkoopmemorialcrit on instagram dot com pic.twitter.com/D8zmjIg7hA
— ToBeDetermined.cc 🤪 (@TBDcycling) May 6, 2018
Outside of the races there was the typical mix of adventure and training throughout the week - including some brutal 60 second max efforts from Coach Fetty in the start of the week. But with a busy few weeks of racing ahead with the Bear Mountain Classic and then Killington Stage Race / Somerville hopefully all this hard work pays off with continued success at the races.
Reading, Links and Random Facts
It is always fun to see the good people of the New York City cycling scene in the New York Times: Building an Urban Escape Vehicle (New York Times)
Every time we ride on public roads, login to twitter or open the news we are reminded just how vulnerable cyclists are. But sometimes the stories are particularly painful to read: A Collision On Patriot Way: Tommy Ketterhagen And The Search For Justice (FloBikes)
Bananas vs. sports drinks, the battle continues: Bananas vs. Sports Drinks? Bananas Win in Study (New York Times)
One of the first things I learned riding in New York City was to give private garbage trucks a very wide berth - early in the morning while riding to CRCA races I will often see them storming through red lights on dimly lit streets. Unfortunately the reality of private trash hauling is even more grim than it seems: Treated Like Trash: A death. A cover-up. An immigrant meets a terrible end in the Bronx (ProPublica)
Alex Hutchinson continues to highlight some of the most interesting sports science: "There are two headline results in the new study. The unsurprising one is that the runners were more efficient than the cyclists at running (with the triathletes somewhere in the middle). On average, the cyclists had to burn 21 percent more energy than the runners to maintain the required pace. That’s partly because the cyclists were a bit heavier on average, but even if you correct for weight, they were still 10 percent less efficient. The more surprising headline, in contrast, is that the cyclists weren’t more efficient than the runners or triathletes at cycling. Statistically, all three groups were pretty much the same in the cycling test." Training Makes Runners More Efficient, but Not Cyclists (Outside Online)
Parting Shot
"That's wrong in so many ways" #Giro101 pic.twitter.com/3PSupy9bku
— FloBikes (@flobikes) May 5, 2018
A New York City based cyclist and sometimes photographer. Part adventure rider, part crit racer, and fully obsessed with an English bulldog named Winifred.
Instagram: @photorhetoric
E-mail: matthew@tobedetermined.cc
